For Pastors

Facts about Religion unveiled

What is religion? Religion is a set of beliefs and practices that defines a relationship between a human and a sacred being. There are quite a number of different religions practiced in the world- there are 20 major practices which is further subdivided into larger and smaller religious groups. The major religions of the world are: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Chinese traditional religion, African traditional, Sikhism, Juche, Baha’i, Primal-indigenous, Shinto, Cao Dai, Zoroastrianism, Tenrikyo, Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist, Spritism, Non-paganism, Unitarian-Universalism, Unitarian-Universalism. Many may know about the names of the religions that are practiced but here are some more facts about religion-

Meditation- which is associated more with the religions belonging to the Eastern side- is one of the most important practices in any religion

Jesus Christ is considered to be one of the great prophets of the Islamic religion and His name is mentioned 5 times in the Quran which is more than Muhammad.

Primitive Baptist Universalists- They are a branch of Baptists found in Appalachia. They are also known as ‘No Hellers’ because of their belief that there is no alternate hell and hell is actually being experienced in their current life.

Nirvana, in Buddhism, is not referred to a place where one can reach through death but rather it is a state that is attained through enlightenment which may take numerous lifetimes.

The Mormons are not allowed to drink alcohol, coffee or even tea.

Some faiths requires its believers to refuse medical treatment such as blood transfusion while some religious denominations refuse the modern technology

In the Islamic religion, Mary who is the mother of Jesus is considered as one of the noblest women. Mary is mentioned more number of times in the Quran than the New Testament Bible.

In North Korea, the only government approved ideology is Juche, which had begun around 1950’s

It was the traditional practice during the 6th century to congratulate people who sneezed because it was believed that when they sneezed, they drive out evil entities from their bodies and in Europe, during the great plague, the Pope passed a law to say “God bless you” to anyone who sneezed and it is very much still practiced today.

In 987, When the Great Vladimir was deciding what the national religion of Russia would be, he had nearly chosen Islam as the religion of the country but after however learning the fact that Muslims were not allowed to drink alcohol, he changed his mind and instead decided on Orthodox Christianity.

Angels are not how they are portrayed in this day and age. They are portrayed as beings with two wings sitting on the clouds elegantly with the harp wearing long white robes. This image of angels are thought of by humans while in the Bible, how the Angels are is not described but it is mentioned that Angels are frightening to behold.

The University of Al-Karaouine, which is one of the world’s oldest universities was established by Muslim woman named Fatima Al-Fihri. In this university, the subjects like astronomy and rhetoric were taught alongside with religious study